Introduction.... we met Alexes at a Smash Ball before Christmas and we were so impressed with her beautiful design work that we insisted on sharing one of our favorites with you. You're probably wondering why we would feature a Christmas Advent Calendar "after" Christmas. Well we knew you could all see past the "theme" and appreciate her mad design skills. Look at it like it could be a Countdown to Valentines instead (wink).
Hi there! It's Alexes from Dear Lexe Designs, I just want to start off by telling you how excited I am to be guest blogging here on My Craft Channel! It's kind of a dream come true for me! I've been playing with paper ever since I was a little girl and what can I say, I'm basically obsessed with all things paper.... So I'm really excited to share a little project with you guys! I'm sure you all have seen the little advent calendars with a pocket for each day with a little piece of chocolate in it, well this is just like that.... but better. This my friends, is my take on the advent calendar.
The very first thing I did was to take 25 small manila tags I got from the oh so awesome hobby lobby. I didn't love the tags plain so I decided to add a little depth and texture. I used the Tim Holtz distressing ink in Antique Linen, which I highly recommend for any of your creamy distressing needs. It added the perfect vintage look to my tags! After all the tags were distressed, I took each tag one at a time and just had some fun! That's one of the things I loved about this project, I could take each tag and make something completely different from the others. So many ideas were going through my head, I had a really great time deciding what I wanted to do with each card, and they are so small that it was quick and easy to make each of them!
One of my favorite cards that I made is the number 10 card. The red lace I used is actually from an old shirt that had lace running along the bottom. Before I threw the shirt out I just cut the lace off . I just love the vintage look it gives to this project.
I know what you're thinking, don't most advent calendars have some kind of activity, treat or ornament associated with each day? The answer my friends, is YES! Obviously I took up most of the room on the front of the card so the only place left was the back! On each of my cards there is a tiny folded piece of vellum with a fun activity written on it. Like bake cookies, read a christmas book, build a fort, ya know, fun holiday stuff. 
One of my very favorite things to do is dye my own ribbon! I swoon over the way the Tattered Angles Mists look on this awesome seam binding. Seam Binding is my favorite ribbon to use for vintage looking projects and the best part is I can usually find some great deals at my local thrift store. Most of the time you can find a bag for 50 cents! score! Oh and I know you can buy special mats for misting, but I just use a deep tupperware for my ribbon. The mist is completely water solvent so just run the tupperware under the faucet and it's clean!
Just a little shout out to My Minds Eye, that pennant banner alpha I used on the top of my calendar is my absolute FAVORITE alpha ever. I hoard it. SO cute!! There should be more just like this!
Thanks so much for stopping by! Oh and for an in-depth look at this years december daily album visit me over at Dear Lexe Designs
Here's a sneak peak!! 
